EXPLORING A JUST CULTURE APPROACH IN RAIL SAFETY REGULATION

SUMMARY Victoria’s rail safety regulator, Transport Safety Victoria (TSV) is exploring the value, benefits and implications of a just culture approach for rail organisations and regulators. Modern rail safety regulation aims to promote continuous improvement in the management of rail safety. Achieving this outcome relies on good regulatory decision-making driven by legislation and policies based on prevailing societal values. These decisions should be guided by regulatory good practice, supported by findings from safety science research. The just culture approach seeks to balance the need to hold people accountable for their actions while facilitating opportunities to learn from accidents. The just culture concept has been applied in industries such as aviation and healthcare and has been the subject of enquiry in the fields of human factors and sociology. While not explicitly identified, the principles underpinning just culture have also been considered in regulatory and legal theory. This paper explores the literature and offers some observations from the regulator’s perspective on why and how a regulator might adopt a just culture approach, the impact on adoption within industry, and the barriers that may prevent effective adoption by the regulator. A proposition is made that the regulator’s ability to employ the full spectrum of the regulatory toolkit (from influencing and education through to administrative sanctions and prosecution) to achieve improved system safety may be enhanced by the incorporation of a just culture perspective. The benefits and challenges of such an approach are discussed.